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  • Acting ICE director Todd Lyons to leave agency

    Acting ICE director Todd Lyons to leave agency

    The acting head of one of the United States’ most high-profile federal law enforcement agencies is preparing to depart his post, a top Department of Homeland Security official has officially confirmed. Todd Lyons, who has served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since March 2025, will leave the agency on May 31 to take up a role in the private sector.

    In a public statement released Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin praised Lyons’ tenure, describing the outgoing acting director as an exceptional leader for ICE and a central contributor to the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration policy agenda. “Director Lyons has been a great leader of ICE,” Mullin said, “he has been a key player in the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.”

    Lyons’ nearly 20-year career with ICE caps a decades-long background in public service, which includes prior service as a U.S. Air Force service member and a local law enforcement officer. During his time leading the agency, Lyons oversaw the removal of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants from the U.S., aligning with the Trump administration’s priority of expanding immigration enforcement. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, the president has dramatically expanded ICE’s workforce, budget, and enforcement mandate, putting the agency at the heart of his controversial mass deportation initiative.

    Under Lyons’ leadership, ICE carried out thousands of immigration arrests across the country, triggering heightened public scrutiny and repeated high-profile clashes with activists and protesters who oppose the agency’s expanded operations. Despite this public pushback, the Trump administration’s top border policy official lauded Lyons’ work. Tom Homan, the administration’s border czar, said in a statement that under Lyons’ direction, “ICE achieved a record number of removals in the first year of this Administration, despite unprecedented challenges.”

    As of Thursday, no successor has been named to take the helm of ICE, an agency with more than 27,400 employees tasked with enforcing federal immigration law, investigating unauthorized border entry, and carrying out deportations. The process of selecting Lyons’ replacement will fall to Mullin, who was only confirmed to his role as Homeland Security Secretary last month.

  • Saudi Arabia pressed US to secure a Lebanon ceasefire to preserve Iran negotiations, sources say

    Saudi Arabia pressed US to secure a Lebanon ceasefire to preserve Iran negotiations, sources say

    Diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions across the Middle East have taken a sharp turn after Saudi Arabia successfully pushed the United States to prioritize a ceasefire in Lebanon, with the goal of preserving fragile negotiations between Washington and Tehran and clearing the way for the reopening of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, multiple senior sources from the US, European and Arab nations have confirmed to Middle East Eye.

    According to Arab and Western officials familiar with the exchange, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman directly pressed US President Donald Trump on the urgency of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed groups during a private telephone conversation held Wednesday. Just 24 hours after that call, Trump made a public announcement of a planned 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon, a step multiple sources attribute directly to intensive lobbying from Riyadh.

    Despite the announcement, major questions remain unresolved: it is still uncertain whether Israel will adhere to the truce terms, and it remains unclear what level of pressure the Trump administration will ultimately bring to bear on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to enforce the pause. Domestically, Lebanon has also faced internal friction over the deal: Hezbollah has publicly criticized the Lebanese government for holding rare direct negotiations with Israel over the ceasefire framework.

    A Western official with direct knowledge of the phone call between the two leaders told Middle East Eye that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made clear that securing a Lebanon ceasefire is a non-negotiable prerequisite to reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending broader regional hostilities.

    Further diplomatic meetings are already in the works, sources confirm: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan is scheduled to hold talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as early as next week, and Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman – the crown prince’s brother and close senior advisor – is expected to join the meeting. Saudi diplomatic teams have also begun circulating a formal negotiation position paper across regional and international capitals, according to Western and Arab officials.

    Last week, Trump stated that Netanyahu had agreed to “scale back” Israeli military operations in Lebanon following formal complaints from Iran over ongoing strikes, but a formal, publicly announced ceasefire represents a far more significant step toward de-escalation. Tehran has repeatedly made clear that no meaningful talks with Washington can proceed without a full ceasefire in Lebanon. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and a top Iranian nuclear and security negotiator have both reaffirmed this position in recent statements.

    A two-week US-Iran truce, mediated by Pakistan, was announced earlier this month and explicitly included Lebanon in its terms, but Israeli strikes on Lebanese territory continued uninterrupted after the deal was struck. If the newly announced 10-day ceasefire holds, it is expected to clear the way for Washington and Tehran to extend their bilateral truce, which is set to expire on April 21. Trump confirmed Wednesday that formal negotiations could resume in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad as soon as within the next 48 hours.

    Pakistan has publicly emerged as the primary intermediary between the US and Iran, but multiple Western and Arab officials note that Islamabad’s diplomatic maneuvering would not be possible without extensive backing from Saudi Arabia, a long-time strategic ally and major financial patron of Pakistan. The two nations maintain a formal mutual defense pact, and Riyadh has repeatedly stepped in to provide critical economic support to Islamabad during periods of financial strain. Just this week, Saudi Arabia agreed to issue a $3 billion loan to cash-strapped Pakistan to help the country cover an urgent debt repayment to the United Arab Emirates.

    A senior Western official noted that Saudi Arabia holds unique influence to encourage Trump to prioritize mediation and acknowledge the importance of Iran’s demand for a Lebanese ceasefire. The kingdom has walked a careful diplomatic line in recent months: it initially opposed large-scale US military strikes on Iran, but ultimately provided limited support to Washington, including opening the King Fahd Air Base in Taif to US operations after Iranian strikes damaged infrastructure at the US-run Prince Sultan Air Base, a development first revealed exclusively by Middle East Eye. Riyadh also previously pushed the US to maintain targeted strikes on Iranian positions after Iranian-aligned groups attacked Saudi and regional energy infrastructure.

    “Saudi Arabia answered the US call and did the minimum necessary to appease Trump. But now they are focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and a ceasefire. They don’t want further escalation. It’s a dance,” the senior Western official told Middle East Eye. This aligns with earlier reporting from The Wall Street Journal, which revealed that Saudi Arabia has already urged Trump to reject proposals for a US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

    At present, Saudi Arabia is able to bypass Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz via the East-West pipeline that connects Gulf oil fields to the Red Sea, allowing the kingdom to export roughly 5 million barrels of crude oil per day despite the closure. Riyadh’s current top priority is preventing the closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait by Houthi forces in Yemen, another critical chokepoint for global energy trade.

  • Iranian footballers say Australia has given them ‘hope’ for safe future

    Iranian footballers say Australia has given them ‘hope’ for safe future

    Two Iranian female footballers who have been granted political asylum in Australia have opened up about their new chapter, saying the country has given them a renewed chance to build a secure life where they can both live and compete without fear. Atefeh Ramezanisadeh and Fatemeh Pasandideh were part of a seven-member group of Iranian national team delegation that initially received humanitarian visas while participating in the 2024 Women’s Asian Cup hosted in Australia. In a surprise turn of events, the remaining five members of the group ultimately chose to return to Iran, reversing their initial decision to seek protection abroad.

    The crisis surrounding the team began shortly after the squad declined to sing Iran’s national anthem ahead of their opening tournament match, a silent protest that came just days after joint air strikes by Israel and the United States sparked deadly conflict in Iran starting February 28. After the protest, footage emerged of an Iranian state television host labeling the players as “traitors” who deserved punishment for their silence during the anthem, triggering widespread international alarm over the players’ safety if they returned home.

    In their first formal public statement since their asylum application was approved, Ramezanisadeh and Pasandideh expressed gratitude to supporters who have stood by them, while requesting space to adjust to their new lives. “At this stage, our primary focus is on our safety, our health and beginning the process of rebuilding our lives,” the joint statement reads. The pair added that they have been deeply moved by the warmth and generosity of Australia’s large Iranian diaspora community, saying that widespread community support has made them feel welcome and eased the isolation of their major life transition. They also extended thanks to the Australian government for granting them a safe haven in the country, and to Home Affairs department officials for their committed, personalized support throughout the visa and asylum process.

    The two players have already begun integrating into Australia’s domestic football landscape, with recent photos showing them training with A-League Women side Brisbane Roar. They confirmed in their statement that they aim to continue pursuing elite professional football careers in their new home.

    To understand the full context of the players’ decision, the sequence of events that unfolded during the Asian Cup offers critical context: after the anthem protest sparked backlash back home, the players were relocated from their original accommodation on the Gold Coast to Brisbane, roughly an hour’s drive north. It was there that they slipped away from the minders accompanying the Iranian delegation, seeking protection from the Australian Federal Police before starting their asylum claims.

    Human rights activists have long raised allegations that the five players who chose to return to Iran faced extreme coercion, arguing that Iranian authorities made threats against their immediate family members remaining in the country to force the players to reverse their decision to seek asylum. Speaking at the height of the crisis earlier this year, Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke acknowledged that the government could not ignore the immense external pressures that shaped each player’s impossible decision.

    The Iranian government has pushed back sharply against the events, with the country’s sports ministry claiming that the return of the five players proved they had “defeated the enemy’s plans” through national unity and patriotism. The ministry also accused the Australian government of advancing foreign political agendas, claiming Canberra was “playing in Trump’s field.” Tasnim News Agency, an outlet closely affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has further claimed that the two players who stayed were subjected to systematic “psychological warfare, extensive propaganda and seductive offers” from Australian actors to convince them to remain in the country.

    The case has drawn global attention to the risks facing Iranian athletes who speak out against their government, and has sparked renewed debate over Australia’s humanitarian visa obligations for at-risk sportspeople from conflict zones.

  • Attacks on US Muslims rose eleven-fold this year alone, advocacy group says

    Attacks on US Muslims rose eleven-fold this year alone, advocacy group says

    Hate violence targeting Muslim-American people and community institutions has surged to its highest level in 15 months during the current Trump administration, a prominent Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization has confirmed. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) documented this alarming upward trajectory in a new policy paper released Thursday, revealing an eleven-fold jump in targeted hate incidents in just the first three months of the year alone.

    According to MPAC’s analysis, at least nine of these recorded attacks took place in March alone. The incidents span a wide spectrum of violence and intimidation, ranging from property vandalism and bomb threats targeting houses of worship to sexual assault directed at Muslim women wearing traditional religious attire.

    Khuram Zaman, founding director of MPAC’s Center for Security, Technology and Policy, tied the sharp spike in attacks to the U.S.-led military campaign against Iran that launched at the end of February. Speaking to independent outlet Middle East Eye, Zaman noted that this military escalation created a clear dividing line between lower baseline levels of anti-Muslim hate seen earlier in the year and the sharp rise seen after the conflict began.

    “What has been most striking is how mainstream extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric has become in public discourse since the war started,” Zaman explained. “Comments calling for burning mosques or planting improvised explosive devices at Islamic centers would once have been relegated to the darkest corners of the internet. Now, that violent language is increasingly normalized and accepted on mainstream social media platforms.”

    Zaman’s assessment is backed by separate research from the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), which tracked a sharp and immediate surge in explicitly anti-Muslim content on X, the social platform owned by Elon Musk, in the hours immediately after the Iran campaign began. Between January 1 and March 5, CSOH documented a wave of posts that dehumanize Muslim people, push for their exclusion from public life, and incite direct violence. Content analyzed ranged from individual hate-filled rants to formal calls for extremist legislation, including a proposed “Muslim Exclusion Act” and demands for the mass deportation of all Muslim people from the U.S.

    MPAC’s policy paper emphasizes that this violent rhetoric is not limited to anonymous social media users: it is increasingly being voiced by sitting Republican members of Congress, a trend that has further normalized anti-Muslim bigotry across the country. Florida Representative Randy Fine has emerged as one of the most high-profile voices of this movement, having called for the deportation of New York City’s Muslim mayor Zohran Mamdani and publicly stated, “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.” While Fine has faced criticism from Democratic lawmakers, he has faced no repercussions from his own party or from President Trump.

    Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles has similarly stated openly that he believes “Muslims don’t belong in American society.” Both Fine and Ogles are members of the newly launched “Sharia-Free America” congressional caucus, which now counts more than 60 Republican members. That makes the caucus larger than the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the House Freedom Caucus, and comparable in size to the Congressional Black Caucus. Zaman stressed that caucus members have explicitly called for the denaturalization and deportation of Muslim American citizens, a policy he described as ethnic cleansing.

    While anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. has persisted at varying levels since the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, MPAC’s report warns that the current shift toward mainstream acceptance of open bigotry represents a dangerous new phase. The organization’s analysis confirms a long-documented trend: periods of heightened U.S. military engagement in the Middle East consistently correspond to rises in domestic anti-Muslim hate, fueled by skewed media coverage and political rhetoric designed to mobilize public support for military action.

    The report pushes back against the common political claim that restricting the rights of Muslim Americans strengthens national security, noting that no evidence supports this assertion. Instead, the group warns, the erosion of Muslim Americans’ civil rights undermines the social cohesion and community trust that effective domestic security depends on.

    At its core, MPAC’s primary policy demand is a permanent end to the U.S.-Israeli military campaign in Iran. The report warns that prolonged conflict will likely lead to a revival and expansion of the intrusive domestic security policies that defined the post-9/11 era, including targeted mass surveillance of Muslim American communities and expanded investigative authority for the FBI. Historically, such policies have led to widespread erosion of civil liberties, from expanded watchlists to intrusive monitoring of religious and community spaces, ultimately weakening U.S. civil society as a whole.

    The impact of rising anti-Muslim hate extends beyond Muslim communities, the report adds. So-called “adjacent communities” — people of color who are often misidentified as Muslim, including Sikh, Hindu, Armenian, and Christian Arab Americans — have also seen a rise in hate attacks as bigotry becomes more normalized.

    MPAC is calling on the Trump administration and all U.S. public institutions to take urgent action: to swiftly condemn all anti-Muslim hateful rhetoric and violence, hold perpetrators of hate crimes accountable, and proactively engage with affected communities to address their safety needs.

    Zaman added that meaningful progress will not be possible until major social media companies take decisive action to remove content inciting violence and restrict accounts that spread anti-Muslim misinformation. “When targets of hate are Muslim people, our mosques and our communities, there is simply no sense of urgency from the platforms or from political leaders to address the threat,” he said.

  • Global warming causes Colombian glacier to disappear

    Global warming causes Colombian glacier to disappear

    A stark visual testament to the accelerating impacts of human-caused climate change has emerged from the Colombian Andes, where the Cerros de la Plaza glacier has been officially declared completely vanished after more than a century of gradual retreat driven by rising global temperatures.

    New satellite composite imagery compiled from 2026 Copernicus Sentinel data illustrates the dramatic transformation: in late December 2015, the mountain peak still retained a visible layer of permanent ice and snow, but by the end of February 2026, no frozen cover remained, leaving only exposed bedrock where the glacier once stood. Official confirmation of the glacier’s total disappearance came last week from Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), the government agency tasked with monitoring the country’s changing natural landscapes.

    Historical data compiled by IDEAM underscores the scale of the loss: at its peak in the 19th century, Cerros de la Plaza spanned 5 square kilometers (1.93 square miles) across the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy range in northeastern Colombia, where summits rise more than 5,000 meters above sea level. Decades of rising temperatures pushed the glacier into steady retreat, with the ice sheet shrinking incrementally from 2015 until it vanished entirely by March 2026.

    IDEAM’s official statement framed the loss as a tangible warning of climate change’s irreversible impacts. “Climate change is a reality that is already transforming our territories. And what is at stake is not only the landscape, but the very balance of these ecosystems,” the agency said.

    The Colombian Andes are recognized as one of the world’s most biodiverse mountain regions, hosting iconic threatened species including Andean condors and the rare spectacled bear, a mammal endemic to South America’s high altitude ecosystems. The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy glacial system is already one of only six remaining glacial networks left in Colombia, and national environment ministry data shows the country’s total glacial ice coverage has plummeted by 90% since the 19th century.

    Beyond biodiversity, the loss of Andean glaciers carries direct consequences for human communities across the region. Glacial melt feeds critical freshwater sources that sustain mountain ecosystems, and underpin key human activities ranging from agricultural crop irrigation to commercial and subsistence fishing.

    The disappearance of Cerros de la Plaza aligns with broader global climate trends: both the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and U.S.-based non-profit research organization Berkeley Earth have confirmed that the past 11 years are the warmest ever recorded on Earth. A landmark 2023 study published in the *Science* journal projected that even if all nations meet their Paris Agreement commitments to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, half of the planet’s total glacier mass will have melted by the end of the 21st century.

  • Hungary’s Orban urges party ‘renewal’ after vote loss

    Hungary’s Orban urges party ‘renewal’ after vote loss

    After 16 consecutive years at the helm of Hungarian politics, nationalist outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban has publicly called for a full overhaul of his long-ruling Fidesz party, just days after a landslide defeat to pro-European political newcomer Peter Magyar.

    Magyar, a conservative newcomer who rose rapidly to challenge Orban’s nationalist agenda, secured a two-thirds parliamentary majority in Sunday’s general election, a contest that saw a record voter turnout across the central European nation. The upset result brought an end to one of the longest-serving administrations in modern European history.

    In his first public remarks since the defeat, broadcast live on the YouTube channel Patriota, Orban acknowledged that the old governing model could not continue. “We cannot continue the way we have been operating until now,” he stated. “A complete renewal is needed, and this applies not only to Fidesz, but to the entire national conservative bloc.”

    The former prime minister admitted he was still processing the scale of the loss, saying he was “trying to somehow come out of this shock” and accepted full accountability for the defeat in his role as party leader.

    Orban outlined two immediate priorities moving forward: first, overseeing a smooth transition of power to the incoming administration, a process he confirmed is already underway. Second, he has begun convening party governing bodies, including a delegate national assembly and full party congress, to carry out the planned renewal process, with preliminary work already in motion.

    In a related announcement Thursday, Hungarian EU Minister Janos Boka confirmed on Facebook that Orban will skip next week’s informal EU heads of state summit in Cyprus, scheduled for April 23–24, to focus on the government handover. The summit would have forced Orban into a potential high-stakes confrontation over his ongoing veto of a €90 billion ($106 billion) EU macro-financial assistance package for Ukraine, a policy that has been a major point of friction between Budapest and Brussels for months.

    Orban’s longstanding close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and former U.S. President Donald Trump, paired with policies widely criticized as democratic backsliding, have put his administration at repeated odds with the European Union. Brussels previously froze billions in allocated cohesion funds for Hungary over rule of law concerns that went unaddressed during Orban’s tenure.

    Since his election victory, Magyar has pledged to dismantle the core structures of Orban’s nationalist administration and reset Hungary’s strained relationship with the EU, a move that would unlock the frozen billions in European funding for the country.

    Within 24 hours of Orban’s post-defeat remarks, EU officials confirmed that a preliminary negotiating delegation will travel to Budapest Friday to open talks with the incoming Tisza party government. EU spokeswoman Paula Pinho noted that the early talks are designed to avoid delays, saying: “These are preliminary talks that are taking place in order to make sure that once the government is in place, really, action can be taken if appropriate, and that we do not waste any time.”

    Magyar’s ‘regime change’ agenda accelerated further Thursday, when the Tisza party leader announced a symbolic break from Orban’s governance style: his administration will not occupy the Carmelite Palace, a hilltop monastery compound overlooking Budapest that Orban converted into his prime ministerial office in 2019. “Under the TISZA government, the prime minister’s office will not be located in the Carmelite Palace, but in a ministry building near the parliament,” Magyar wrote in a Facebook post.

    Orban’s 2019 move to the former monastery, located in Budapest’s historic Castle District, drew widespread criticism from opponents, who condemned the millions in public funds spent on renovations and the heavy security perimeter that restricted public access to the landmark, which the government appropriated for state use back in 2014.

    Magyar has also promised to suspend biased coverage from state-run media outlets, which opponents have long described as a propaganda mouthpiece for Orban and Fidesz. On Thursday, staff at Hungary’s state-owned national news agency MTI released an open letter calling for the immediate restoration of editorial autonomy, with one senior editor telling AFP that staff had “had enough of unlawful, external political interference” in newsroom operations.

  • Villa and Forest set up all-English showdown in Europa League semis

    Villa and Forest set up all-English showdown in Europa League semis

    Two English Premier League sides have written their names into 2024-25 UEFA Europa League history, securing an unprecedented all-English showdown in the semi-finals after commanding quarter-final second leg wins on Thursday.

    Unai Emery’s in-form Aston Villa turned a solid 3-1 first-leg advantage into an emphatic 7-1 aggregate rout, crushing Italy’s Bologna with a 4-0 clean sheet at their home ground Villa Park. The result marked Villa’s second consecutive European semi-final appearance under Emery, following their 2023-24 Conference League last-four run, and extends the four-time Europa League-winning manager’s incredible legacy in the competition.

    England international striker Ollie Watkins once again led the charge for Villa, opening the scoring in the 16th minute to cap a fluid 14-pass team build-up finished with a close-range tap-in from Morgan Rogers’ assist. The goal marked Watkins’ 100th goal across all competitions for the club, pushing him to the top of Villa’s all-time European scoring charts with 10 goals, overtaking club legends Peter Withe and John McGinn.

    Though Rogers missed a 25th-minute penalty after a Bologna handball, Emiliano Buendia struck just one minute later with a blistering effort to double Villa’s lead. Rogers redeemed his miss before halftime, scoring his first goal in 12 matches with a clinical strike past Bologna goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia. Center-back Ezri Konsa capped the dominant display with a 89th-minute volley, sealing a resounding home victory.

    “We needed to get the first goal, it was very important. They are a dangerous team away from home,” Villa captain John McGinn said after the match. “A great first half gets us to a semi-final, I’m delighted.”

    Over at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground, the underdogs pulled off a historic upset to knock out Portugal’s Porto, securing a 2-1 aggregate win with a 1-0 second-leg victory. Forest, currently 12 places below Villa in the Premier League table, reached their first continental semi-final since the 1983-84 UEFA Cup, more than 40 years ago. Playing in Europe for the first time since 1995-96, the result is a landmark moment for the club. The match was shaped by an early red card for Porto defender Jan Bednarek, who was sent off in the 8th minute for a dangerous foul on striker Chris Wood that forced the New Zealander off injured.

    Forest capitalized on their numerical advantage just four minutes later, when Morgan Gibbs-White’s deflected strike from the edge of the box looped into the Porto net. The goal celebration carried emotional weight: Gibbs-White held up a shirt bearing the name of teammate Elliot Anderson, who missed the match following the death of his mother. Another touching moment came at halftime, when former Forest striker Tony Woodcock was finally presented with his 1980 European Cup winner’s medal — he had been denied the honor after leaving the club mid-season during the side’s second consecutive European Cup title run amid a strained relationship with legendary manager Brian Clough.

    Porto came close to forcing extra time twice in the second half, with William Gomes and Alan Varela both hitting the woodwork from close range, but Forest held on to secure their place in the semis. Forest manager Vitor Pereira, whose side is currently fighting a relegation battle in the Premier League, paid tribute to his team’s character after the win. “The club and the supporters deserve it. I have a fantastic team. They have the spirit, character and quality,” he said, adding he would not turn his focus to the Villa semi-final until after this weekend’s league match against Burnley.

    Two other sides booked their semi-final spots on Thursday. Germany’s Freiburg reached their first ever Europa League semi-final after a 3-1 away win over Spain’s Celta Vigo, wrapping up a dominant 6-1 aggregate win with an opener from Igor Matanovic and a brace from Japanese winger Yuito Suzuki. Portugal’s Sporting Braga completed a comeback to beat Real Betis 4-2 away, sealing a 5-3 aggregate win to set up a semi-final tie against Freiburg.

  • New twist in SA Premier’s $2.3m lawsuit row

    New twist in SA Premier’s $2.3m lawsuit row

    A high-stakes $2.3 million legal battle involving South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has taken an unexpected turn, just one month after a judge threw out the initial civil claim against him. The long-running, acrimonious dispute traces back to blackmail charges filed against former state lawmaker Annabel Digance and her husband Greg, which were ultimately dropped before going to trial. Digance, a one-time Labor Party colleague of Malinauskas, launched the damages suit over what she alleges was Malinauskas’ malicious role in the aborted prosecution that led to the charges against her and her spouse.

    Last month, South Australia’s Supreme Court Associate Justice Graham Dart dismissed the civil case entirely, ruling that Digance’s claims against the premier lacked any “reasonable basis” to proceed. Following that ruling, Malinauskas publicly embraced the court’s decision, framing it as a vindication for ethical governance. “I knew at the time that when I reported the matter to police it would set in train a sequence of events that was beyond my control, and it would be very public and there would be difficult days associated with that politically,” Malinauskas said in his post-ruling statement. “I am particularly grateful for the court decision because I think it sends a clear message to people in any position of responsibility that there is nothing to fear in doing the right thing.”

    But Digance immediately signaled the fight was not over, warning the dispute remained “far from resolved” and confirming plans to challenge the dismissal. This week, that challenge moved forward, with a new procedural hearing at the Supreme Court locking in next steps for the appeal. Neither Malinauskas nor Digance appeared in person for the short administrative hearing, overseen by Justice Mark Livesey. Livesey set an August deadline for both legal teams to submit their formal written arguments to the court. Court documents confirm Digance’s appeal will be built on four distinct legal grounds, including a reference to “unidentified evidence” that was not considered in the initial dismissal. The full details of these appeal grounds were not debated during this week’s procedural session. The case has now been adjourned for the full appeal listing, scheduled to open on Monday, September 14, bringing the high-profile political legal saga back into the public spotlight later this year.

  • France reports over 40 cryptocurrency kidnappings so far this year

    France reports over 40 cryptocurrency kidnappings so far this year

    A disturbing new trend in organized crime has emerged across France, where law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday that more than 40 cases of kidnapping and illegal confinement linked to cryptocurrency extortion have been recorded since the start of 2025. This sharp rise in violent targeting of digital asset holders marks a rapid expansion of a criminal tactic that was virtually unheard of before 2024.

    French judicial and interior ministry authorities outlined the growing threat to reporters this week, noting that the wave of targeted abductions began gaining traction in late 2024, when criminal networks first began focusing on wealthy cryptocurrency investors and their families. What was once a marginal criminal activity has exploded in frequency: just 30 cases were reported across all of 2024, a figure that has already been surpassed in the first four months of 2025 alone.

    Philippe Chadrys, deputy national director of France’s judicial police, explained that the criminal networks behind these attacks typically operate with a distributed structure, with masterminds based outside of France coordinating local henchmen, who often only receive their target’s identity at the last minute. Attacks have targeted a wide range of people connected to the crypto space, from individual retail holders with large digital asset portfolios to senior executives at major institutional cryptocurrency firms. Not all incidents end in abduction, Chadrys added, with some attempts resulting in extortion or theft without prolonged confinement.

    Annabelle Vandendriessche, who leads the interior ministry’s Service for Information, Intelligence, and Strategic Analysis on Organised Crime (Sirasco), confirmed the rapid growth of the phenomenon, saying it remained a niche threat just 12 months ago before becoming a major priority for law enforcement this year.

    Recent high-profile cases underscore the severity of the threat. On Monday this week, a woman and her 11-year-old son were abducted in France’s central Burgundy region, with kidnappers issuing a demand for cryptocurrency ransom. A coordinated operation involving roughly 100 law enforcement officers located and freed the pair by Tuesday, with seven men taken into custody in connection with the crime.

    Earlier this month, on April 10, five abductors carried out an attack in the southern French coastal town of Anglet, targeting a known cryptocurrency investor. The group stole luxury jewelry, personal electronics including computers and phones from the property, but they ultimately failed to capture their intended target. Law enforcement intercepted the five suspects at Paris’s Montparnasse train station following the mistaken-target error.

    The most violent case to date dates back to January 2025, when kidnappers seized David Balland, co-founder of leading cryptocurrency hardware firm Ledger— a company that was valued at over $1 billion at the time of the attack. During his confinement, Balland’s captors cut off one of his fingers to pressure him into paying a massive crypto ransom, while his girlfriend was bound and locked in the trunk of a car left outside Paris. Balland was rescued by authorities the day after his abduction.

  • ‘I was tortured and lost my hand’ – one student’s struggle to get an education in Nigeria

    ‘I was tortured and lost my hand’ – one student’s struggle to get an education in Nigeria

    Six years after Nigeria passed landmark anti-discrimination legislation for people living with disabilities, widespread systemic barriers continue to lock millions of citizens out of education, employment and public life, even as activists push for faster, more meaningful inclusive reform across the country.

    For 19-year-old Ovey Friday, the lifelong trauma of a childhood attack nearly cost him the educational opportunity he had worked his entire life to earn. At age 13, Friday’s stepmother falsely accused him of witchcraft and turned him over to a traditional herbalist in Nigeria’s central Nasarawa State, where he was brutally tortured. When a neighbor finally intervened and alerted police, the damage to his hands was too severe to repair. Surgeons were forced to amputate his entire left hand, and remove or permanently scar most of the fingers on his right hand, leaving him without usable thumbprints for biometric verification.

    When Friday qualified to take Nigeria’s national university entrance exam administered by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (Jamb) two years ago, the testing system’s mandatory fingerprint scan could not recognize his damaged hands. It was only through the urgent advocacy of his guardians and disability rights activists that officials agreed to accept a toe print as a valid form of identification. Today, Friday is the first member of his family to attend university, where he studies English and literary studies, re-learning how to write and adapt to independent life on campus. Despite his traumatic past and the barriers he has faced, Friday has emerged as an example of what disabled people can achieve when given access to opportunity. “Not everyone has someone to push for them. Some people will just stop trying,” he reflected.

    Friday’s struggle is far from unique. Scarlett Eduoku, a radio presenter based in Nigeria’s northern Kano State, lost her left eye when she was just 18 months old, and she now faces constant barriers to basic digital services. Most modern facial recognition-enabled identity verification apps are unable to scan her face correctly, preventing her from completing routine tasks remotely. When she needed to upgrade her mobile SIM card from 3G to 5G, she was forced to travel across the city to her provider’s main headquarters to complete the process in person, a time-consuming and frustrating inconvenience that most Nigerians never have to navigate.

    Invisible disabilities bring their own unique set of challenges. Opeyemi Ademola, a 28-year-old project manager based in Lagos, lives with mixed hearing loss, an invisible condition that creates constant communication barriers. “People assume that if you can speak fluently, you don’t experience communication challenges,” Ademola explained. He requires intense focus to follow conversations in meetings, and crowded, noisy environments leave him completely mentally exhausted. Simple, low-cost adjustments like post-meeting written summaries and closed captions for video calls would drastically improve his ability to participate fully in the workplace, he said. “Accessibility is not about ability. It’s about support.”

    Experts estimate that more than 35 million Nigerians – roughly 15% of the country’s total population – live with some form of disability. In 2019, Nigeria’s national parliament passed landmark legislation that banned discrimination against disabled people and guaranteed equal access to public services, leading to the creation of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) to advocate for disabled rights. But according to NCPWD executive secretary Ayuba Burki-Gufwan, progress on implementation has moved at a glacial pace.

    Burki-Gufwan notes that small, incremental gains have already proven how impactful policy change can be. Jumb has eliminated exam fees for disabled students and set up dedicated testing centers for people with diverse accessibility needs. At the Federal University of Lafia in Nasarawa State, officials have waived up to 75% of tuition fees for disabled students, which led to an immediate surge in disabled enrollment as hundreds of students rushed to access the opportunity they had long been denied.

    Disability advocates emphasize that true inclusion requires far more than incremental adjustments. Lagos-based special educator Chukwuemeka Chimdiebere argues that accessibility extends well beyond physical building ramps, a common afterthought in most Nigerian infrastructure. True inclusion requires sign-language interpreters in all classrooms, adaptive learning materials for students with visual impairments, specialized training for educators, and digital platforms designed from the start to accommodate diverse user needs. “Many persons with disabilities are not limited by their impairment. They are limited by systems that were never designed with them in mind,” Chimdiebere said. “Inclusion is not a favour. It is a responsibility.”

    Physical infrastructure remains one of the most persistent daily barriers for disabled Nigerians, especially for people who use wheelchairs. Abiose Falade, a 48-year-old author and wheelchair user based in Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria, says disability “is part of the circle of life,” but public spaces are not built to welcome people like her. In most Nigerian cities, sidewalks are uneven, blocked by open drainage ditches, or non-existent, and accessibility-focused dropped curbs are extremely rare. Rural areas have no paved sidewalks at all, forcing wheelchair users to travel on unsafe, unpaved public roads. Most public buildings, from banks to hospitals to government offices, do not have ramps, meaning wheelchair users cannot enter without physical assistance from another person. “There’s a list of places I can go and a list I can’t,” Falade said. “When I want to go out, I take someone with me so that when people start staring, start pointing, I don’t notice. It’s easier than facing it alone.”

    Compounding these challenges is a total lack of local manufacturing for assistive devices. Every wheelchair, hearing aid and mobility aid used in Nigeria must be imported, driving up costs and making critical tools inaccessible to most low-income disabled Nigerians. “If nine out of every 10 person with disabilities requires some form of assistive device and none are locally manufactured, then we have a huge challenge on our hands,” Burki-Gufwan said.

    Disability advocates are calling for all levels of Nigerian government to set aside 1% of public budgets for accessibility initiatives and disabled rights. They acknowledge that limited public funding and competing national priorities slow progress, even for government leaders who support inclusion. Expanding accessible infrastructure and local assistive device production will require significant upfront investment, but activists stress that stronger political commitment and consistent enforcement of existing anti-discrimination laws are just as critical as increased funding.

    For Burki-Gufwan, the end goal is clear: true accessibility that leaves no one behind, in education, in employment, and in public life. For young students like Ovey Friday, that vision is already becoming a reality – one hard-won victory at a time.